McLean, Va., USA, and Adelaide, Australia, September 27, 2019 — MITRE and the new Australian Cyber Collaboration Centre will partner to take on global cybersecurity threats, with an initial focus on detecting insider threats and protecting South Australia’s smart grid.
With a unique vantage point working across government and industry, MITRE has a deep understanding of cyber adversaries and their tradecraft, which it uses to develop approaches to detect and mitigate attacks that target public and private institutions.
“MITRE has worked to enhance the security and resilience of U.S. critical cyber systems and infrastructure from more than 50 years,” said Gary Gagnon, MITRE’s vice president for cyber strategy and chief security officer. “We look forward to working with South Australia on areas of joint concern where we can make it more difficult and time-consuming for adversaries to attack key critical infrastructures sectors.”
Protecting Australia’s Smart Grid
South Australia has been an early adopter of renewable energy sources, with one of the world’s highest rates of rooftop solar per capita anywhere in the world. As smart grids emerge, they need to be protected from potential cyber adversaries. MITRE’s partnership with South Australia will focus on deeply understanding the smart grid and how to use it to help support energy security into the future.
Advanced Detection of Insider Threats
As Australian businesses and government agencies have become better at stopping cyberattacks, criminals have shifted focus to prey on employees and coerce them to steal information or open backdoors into computer systems. MITRE will team with companies including DTEX, a cybersecurity provider founded in Adelaide and headquartered in Silicon Valley that protects many Australian agencies and businesses from insider breaches, including detection and investigation of citizen data theft at companies such as AMP, a financial services firm headquartered in Sydney. MITRE and Dtex have enlisted the help of Adelaide start-up Presagen, who will apply advanced artificial intelligence techniques to existing detection and investigation capabilities.
“We are excited about a strategic partnership with South Australia as we work to solve problems for a safer world,” said Julie Bowen, MITRE’s senior vice president for strategic engagements and general counsel. “Partnerships enable collaborative defense. Collaborative defense changes the individual homes protected by a single owner into a neighborhood patrolled by a community watch. We don’t simply push the problem to our neighbors but together we engage the adversaries broadly and bring into focus things that are seen through a straw.”
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Jeremy Singer
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